Summer 2011 Road Trips
Ok, let’s hear your stories of 2011 road trips. How many greasy miles did you go? Did you bring your fuel with you or dumpster dive? Any breakdowns or other fun tales?
I’ll start it off. Back in March, my fiance and I took a 500+ mile round trip to Burney falls to celebrate our engagement. I had just finished converting my 79 300sd and this was actually the maiden voyage. I had 20 gallons in my tank and an extra 15 gallons in cubies in the trunk. 35 gallons of oil and over 250lbs of weight in the trunk. I also brought my key tools, extra hoses and clamps, flashlight and my oily pants should things go awry. I had done a couple of conversions in the past, so I wasn’t too worried about breakdowns, but one never wants to risk a breakdown with a lady in the car. Although, she didn’t completely freak out when I was crawling around in the snow trying to fix a pressure switch on my truck on our last trip, I am trying to make a better name for veggie oil. 80 mph on I5 the whole way there without any problems whatsoever. We cruised up and down hills and got to the destination without a hitch. The morning we were to leave however, freezing temps hit. I still had some WVO in my diesel tank after wiring the valve in backwards, so of course, I couldn’t get the car started that morning. Fortunately, I knew of a trick to hand pump the lift pump while cranking the engine, and it finally worked as I primed and she cranked while stepping on the throttle. No tow trucks, no crawling under the car, no spills and 500+ miles on free fuel was what I call a successful first trip.
-Jason Jelonek
Vincent LeBlanc says:
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 9:07pm
I started running a 50/50 blend of wvo and diesel recently and love the result. So far I have put about 3,000 miles on the truck and have not had any problems. I do change the fuel filter every 2k miles and run a cetane booster in the blend. I live in the New Orleans area so I have a warm climate to contend with, so no problems with cold starts. I bought the basic centrifuge and heater set up and have found it to be easy to run a 55gal batch for one and a half fill ups of my 1999 F 250.
The whole reason I got back into the alternative fuel game again was because I am going to have to go back to school for my job, and the time in school is going to cut into my side work, so less money to spend on fuel to drive back and forth to school. I used to process biodiesel and loved the savings but hated the amount of time needed to run a batch. I set up my sysyem now to do 55 gal in 6 hours and I dont even need to be there.
I hope to get some info on what types of resturants have the best wvo to clean up and mix. I was getting oil from a local resturant that changed ownership and now he burns the oil to a dark color, so I stopped using his oil. Im open to sugestions on where to get any good wvo so I can make many gallons to burn going to school.
COYT JOHNSTON says:
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 10:24pm
HI. I HAVE USED WVO FROM HOSPITALS AND SCHOOLS IT ALWAYS LOOKS VERY CLEAN THE HOSPITALS HAVE A FED LAW TO CHANGE THE OIL EVERY WEEK. SO I HAVE BEEN TOLD I HAVE A 1998 DFODGE 3500 WITH THE CUMMINS ENGINE. IT DOESNT LIKE BIO DIESEL I HAVE HAD TO REPLACE THE LIFT PUMP AND THE INJECTOR PUMP TWICE IN LESS THAN 500 MILES ON TWO TRYS NO MORE I ALSO HAVE A MERCEDAs 1983 300sd that loves bio diesel. good juck . coyt johnston
Matt says:
Wednesday, August 3, 2011 at 5:55pm
5/8/11 (mothers day)- coming back frmo a MOthers day celebration 1 hour from home, rebuilt conversion, 100 gallons of freshly filled fuel and a full tank of diesel/ t-boned on the hiway and totaled. Everyone was ok.
Trips:
800+ mile trip to Monticello AR.. on gas
1000+ mile trip to Dallas TX… on gas
400 mile trip to Weeping Water, NE… on gas
1400+ miles a month to and from work… on gas
300+ miles a month in general driving… on gas
GOOD NEWS new truck, parts fro conversion on order! cant wait to be back!
randy holton says:
Saturday, August 6, 2011 at 8:48pm
Last Feburary I drove my ’82 300tdi Mercedes from S.C. to Utah and back on a month long ski-trip. I towed a 4×8 trailer with 50 cubbies of wvo that had been cleaned by a WVO Designs centrifuge. I have a 24 gallon heated wvo tank in the trunk with room remaining in the trunk for 4 cubbies. Had no problems running the trip exclusively on wvo–arrived home with one cubbie to spare. Encountered -15F ambient temps regularly. In additon to the heated tank in the trunk, I’ve plummed coolant through copper pipes on the floor of the trunk. On top of the copper pipes is a copper sheet, upon which sit 4 cubbies.
So when time to fill the wvo tank the drill went like this: I pour the cubbies from the trunk ,having been warmed by the copper sheet, into the wvo tank. I replace those cubbies with cubbies from the trailer (which may be -15F and rock-solid). Those cubbies are then nice and warm by the time the wvo tank needs refilling. Worked like a charm.
Its August now and I’m still running the same Racor element that was replaced just prior to the Utah trip!
Randy Holton
Folly Beach, SC
Ray says:
Monday, August 15, 2011 at 12:06am
No road trips here but lots of miles running on B100 and heating our home and water for home use. Started my own business and have been using my centrifuge ever since I got it. Converting one person at a time to the clean green way of using WVO products. We also use the glycerin by product from creating our biofuel to produce many natural cleaning products. Great feeling knowing I can fuel auto, home and provide clean chemical free products to my family and others.
Muns53 says:
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 2:11am
This August, we did a 5,996 mile “epic” family camping trip with 5,435 of it on WVO. We hit 12 states and five national parks out west. I have about 35 gals capacity in the VO tank and brought 150 gals in storage barrels. We stopped four times on the road to purchase clean oil at $1.00-$1.50 per gal. Between our Excursion and Jetta wagon, our family has about 70K miles on WVO over the last three years. We love road-tripping!
Craig says:
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 2:47am
No centrifuge here yet but thinking really, really hard about it after spending $600 in August on service at the shop when all I needed to do was to change the VO filter. Seems as though I’d been going through a filter a week this summer. Also after multiple hanging filterbag failures I’ve almost decided that the centrifuge is the way to go. My Cummins 4×4 has been on VO for almost 6 years. It has 120 VO gallons fully accessable from the driver’s seat plus 30 gallons of D ready when the VO runs out. Trips this year have included 200 miles to Easton MD, 400 miles to Yorktown Heights NY and 600 miles with car trailer in tow both ways to Monroeville PA. Trips in recent years have included the top of Mt Washington in NH 1200 miles, , Northern VA 300 miles, a few trips to Maine including Down East. A typical Maine trip was 1300 miles. Also heating the house with VO and thinking about a VO heated driveway and hot tub. Gotta love VO!
Jason says:
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 4:12pm
VO heated Hot Tub!!! 🙂
Let’s get that design up on our website.
Nolan says:
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 5:43pm
Hello Leon,
This looks like a good place to say thank you. I have been using the smaller of your monster pumps with the larger hose for the whole summer. This is by far the best pump I have ever had. It is fast, lightweight and works without popping a breaker on every place I have used it.
Your pump took the hassle out of collecting oil for me.
Thank you very much for building exactly what we needed.
Nolan
Dave says:
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 6:39pm
Just got back for my yearly Burning Man Trek. 1700 Mile round trip. Uses about 2 to 3 gallons of diesel and 150 gallons of veggie. 95 Dodge Ram towing a 25 foot Travel Trailer. 40 gallon tank in truck and 15 gallon drums in back for on road refueling. Also on the trip was my 2000 Fuso Box truck that runs on veggie with our camping equipment for others and 300 gallons of veggie for refueling of other Veggie Trucks for the ride back. In our camp was my 95 Dodge Ram..my 2000 Fuso 12 ft box truck….a 93 Dodge Dually and a 2003 Dodge Ram that was towing also. All were converted by http://www.veggiegarage.com in Mesa…My shop. 4 years now and it feels great to stop a gas station just for a restroom and soda!!!
Jeff Davis says:
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 7:47pm
’03 Dodge 2500 2wd
We went to OBX early this summer. Drove 1600 miles in a week cost $45 for diesel. Didn’t bring extra Veg. Met Guy named Darrel that collects the oil at Jimmies seafood buffet and swapped oil stories… he runs Bio in a ford so he had no useable oil for sale. Went to Chicago for laborday weekend to watch our oldest graduate from Navy bootcamp. Drove 2000 miles in a week on 1/4 tank of diesel… I brought 15 extra gallons this time in drop tanks. Working side jobs right now to purchase a centrafuge. Just got the WVO liftpump… its still in the mail.
aaron says:
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 11:31pm
Just arrived in San Juan Del Sur Nicaragua driving a converted 95 dodge (pictures in the forum) It was around 4,233 miles from Idaho to here. I brought a lot of oil and this truck desperately needs air bags! I had 4 55 gallon drums one 35 gallon drum plus a 75 gallon transfer tank. I filled up in Arizona from somebody to top off my tanks. Only breakdown was a broken line from the power steering pump to the steering gear box, had it welded in Guatemala and I was on my way. I also had a clogged KRC racing prefilter clog in mexico that killed my fuel pressure. No big deal though I cleaned it and was good to go. I brought my WVO designs centrifuge and will be using it down here so I have enough to make back to the states.
joel says:
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 3:05am
Hey, Great story. I’ve been down to San Juan a few times. How did you manage to collect more VO? Did it turn out all right? Cheers!
Dave says:
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 4:12pm
We had to go college searching this last spring. We put on over 3000 miles all on vegi oil going from Pennsylvania all the way up to Maine and down to North Caroline. All of it on Vegi oil that I took with me. I put the containers in the back for each loop. Good times and we found the right college. It went smooth. I found I kinda liked filling up in McDonald’s parking lot. We could hit the restrooms while I refueled and grab some coffee etc.
Dan Fontaine says:
Thursday, March 22, 2012 at 11:27am
Hello! This is very interesting posting. I Bonk Utilized WVO FROM HOSPITALS AND SCHOOLS IT E’er LOOKS Rattling Cleansed THE HOSPITALS Love A FED LAW TO Occurrence THE OIL EVERY Period.
Khaled Mahmud says:
Thursday, March 22, 2012 at 11:56am
Thanks for this nice postings. Please share more like this story on WVO.
dude says:
Monday, October 15, 2012 at 1:50am
Traveled from minnesota to Alaska with an 85 jetta NA, summer of 2010. Just over 3000k one way. Left with around 90 gals of filtered veg in trunk, made it to Anchorage, about 110 miles from destination, before had to buy a tank of diesel. Trip home was on purchased oil from an Anchorage dude. Only trouble was a failed injector nozzle on way up, blown alternator belt on way home.
Summer of 2011 drove the 96 cummins up with 310 gal of oil in back, 270 of which was plumbed into fuel system. Towed Jetta. Got 16mpg, cummins runs smooth. Lift pump failed 1 hour from destination but i limped her there. trip home went off without a hitch.
Fall 2012, drove to TExas from MN n back with 180 gal of oil plumbed into fuel system.
Have had some troubles, maybe from veggie, maybe not, but love driving on the veg, 150k veg miles on Jetta and Cummins combined. Jetta has been reringed twice, severe coking in cylinders, oil is 190 at injector pump????? Filtereing is good, over 70k on filter of jetta.